Active Reading      


 

As you read, annotate or take notes. Jot comments on post-it notes affixed to key pages, or write handwritten notes. You may make digital notes and save them in a desktop folder.

Make sure to write down any CONNECTIONS you think of between the novel and your life,  other texts, or the world around you.

Use the SIGNPOSTS method of noticing important events as you read your novel. You used this strategy in the Short Story unit. You can review it here.

As you read, note words worth knowing (words that are unfamiliar, useful, or common to many situations) in your annotations. These vocabulary words may include the author's special jargon and new, unknown, or otherwise interesting words.  Be sure to include the page number on which you noticed each vocabulary word.

At the end of each chapter or section, summarize the material briefly. Title each chapter or section, especially if the text does not provide headings for chapters or sections. (Your titles become useful clues to content when you are looking for details later.)

Colour-code your notes according to the elements of a novel (plot, character, setting, style, theme) such as in the following chart.


Setting

  • Consider relationships between characters and setting.
Examples: 
  • personal context: What effect does the character's family,  ethnicity, or culture have on his/her outlook, beliefs, values?
  • geographic location:  Why is where the character lives important?
  • historical context: Why would living in this character's period in history affect his or her experiences, outlook, and beliefs? 
  • Consider the symbolic meaning of the setting in the novel.               
Character
  • Take notes on a character (what he or she likes, dislikes) and how he or she changes in the novel).
  • Reflect on what motivates a character.              
  • Reflect on the relationships between characters and how they are contributing to their communities.              
  Plot 
  • Reflect on an experience you have had similar to a character in the book.                
  • Consider conflict in the story.
  • Make predictions of what will happen next 
  • keep track of main events 
  • Decide whether or not you think the event is realistic or plausible.
  • Detect significant links between events and characters. 
Theme

  • Consider reoccurring ideas in the book.              
  • Consider connections between the novel and your own belief system or ideas about human nature.         
  • Reflect on a life lesson in the novel.
  • Identify meaningful quotations that reveal theme.
Style
  • Identify figures of speech such as similes, metaphors, personification, onomatopoeia, and alliteration.     
  • Identify irony, humour, and symbols.
  • List and define words worth learning (ones that are unfamiliar, useful, or common to many situations) and the page numbers in which they appear. 

You will not be marked on your notes; however, you will need the information to complete the assignments in the Novel Study.


It is STRONGLY recommended that you choose and start reading your novel NOW.